Outpost offers weekday fun, lunch at Shute Park

And the sun made its appearance just in time. Children showed up for a little summertime fun and a free lunch, courtesy of the City of Hillsboro Parks and Recreation and its community partners.

The Outpost at Shute Park offers children free summer fun activities each weekday from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for nine weeks during the summer. Children can also get a free lunch, served each day at noon.

This is the fifth year of The Outpost, the largest open summer food site in Oregon, says the Recreation Resource Manager Corinne Bloomfield. “The first year we had about 60 children a day. Now we have 400 … or more,” she said, surveying the scene on Wednesday.

The program started in 2006 as a partnership between the parks department, Washington County Commission on Children and Families, three local churches — Sonrise, Mosaic and Vineyard — and the Hillsboro School District.

Lunches are prepared at the Lincoln Street School kitchen by school district nutrition services staff, then picked up by volunteers from an area church. The church volunteers set up and hand out the lunches. Food is paid for through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Summer Food Program.

The Outpost was the brain child of Cindy Allen. Allen saw a need in the community and went to the parks and recreation department with her idea. She is now the director of The Outpost.

In between moving the slip-n-slide out of the mud and getting kids rounded up for lunch, Allen said that Wednesdays are typically busy days because of the water play. The first Wednesday of this summer’s Outpost was no different. “I requested 500 lunches today” she said. “They were able to deliver 450. We’re going to run out.”

And run out they did. Matthias Clock, the food manager, estimated he had more than 600 children in line for lunch Wednesday and had to turn about 175 away.

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Allen has many volunteers to help run the program. She rounds up helpers from service clubs at local high schools. “I have kids come back to volunteer who used to come to program,” she said. Volunteers contribute an estimated 800 hours to the program each summer.

The Outpost 2010 sponsors and partners are Intel Involved, Genentech, Target, Kaiser Permanente, Hillsboro Police Department, Tuality Healthcare, Washington County Commission on Children and Families, Hillsboro Fire Department, City of Hillsboro Water Department, City of Hillsboro Library and Libros Outreach, Soroptimists International of Hillsboro, Hillsboro churches (Sonrise, Westport, Timberlake, Calvary Lutheran with Iglesia de Christo, Sisterhood of the Secret Angel, ChristChurch, and Iglesia Sonrise), Trader Joe’s Hillsboro, Metro Mountain Climbing, and Hillsboro School District Nutrition Services.

“Hillsboro Parks and Recreation and our Outpost partners provide Hillsboro children with a safe and healthy place to come have fun, get exercise, eat a nutritious lunch and learn valuable life skills,” Bloomfield said.

The Outpost was awarded the 2009 Oregon League of Cities Award for Excellence for its success bringing city government and community partners together to serve the needs of youth.

The Outpost is open 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. each weekday through Aug. 20.

For more information, call 503-681-6120 or see www.ci.hillsboro.or.us/ParksRec.